Sustainability and Development: a Green New World?

Impoverished people in developing countries and their children want to be wealthy, and that will realistically not be achieved through relying on renewable energy alone. Indeed, sustainability and development are often seen as contradictory. Yet, is it true that developing countries face a trade-off between either economic growth and poverty reduction, or protecting the environment? Is sustainable development in the emerging world desirable and possible? Join this highly timely discussion with international speakers who bring work experience from a variety of countries and sectors, including at Greenpeace and the UN.

EVENT DETAILS

• Date: 23rd February 2021
• Time: 18:30 – 20:00 (GMT+0)

SPEAKERS

• Nehmat Kaur, Head of Global Government Relations at The Climate Group

LSE alumna (MSc Development Studies) Nehmat Kaur joined the Climate Group in 2018 and is now Head of Global Government Relations for the Under2 Coalition Secretariat. She is a climate and energy policy expert based in London. She joined the Climate Group from the Natural Resources Defense Council where she was India Representative for five years, leading the work on renewable energy and finance. For more than ten years she has worked with key government and private sector stakeholders on accelerating climate action in India and across the world through evidence-based analysis, expertise and stakeholder engagement. She’s worked on a wide range of issues including energy efficiency, clean energy, energy access, clean transportation, international climate policy, air quality and climate resilience.

• Peggy Liu, Chairperson of US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy

As Chairperson of JUCCCE, Peggy Liu is one of the leading catalysts of a green China and consults companies and governments on sustainability and cross-cultural collaboration with China. JUCCCE is an environmental organisation that has been at the heart of the greening of China since 2007. It is most noted for accelerating societal-scale change, for example through having introduced Smart Grid to China and having educated over 1000 Chinese mayors and central government leaders on how to build sustainable cities. Prior to JUCCCE, Peggy worked as a venture capitalist in Shanghai and as a management consultant for McKinsey. She holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

• Natalia Patricia Salazar Alekseyeva, Latin American & Caribbean regional Country Manager at the OPEC Fund for International Development

Natalia is a country manager (Latin America and the Caribbean region) at the OPEC Fund for International Development. She works with governments to help them meet their development goals in support of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Proficient in five languages, she has worked in countries across Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. She has studied international relations, business and economics at universities in Ecuador, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.

• Babatunde Omilola, Head of Development Planning and Inclusive Sustainable Growth at the United Nations Development Programme

Dr Babatunde Omilola has been working at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for 11 years. Since 2015, he has served as the Head of Development Planning and Inclusive Sustainable Growth Team. Earlier, he worked as UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Liaison Officer to the African Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Ethiopia. He holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Sussex.

Academic Chair: TBC